By Monique Muise, Postmedia News

MONTREAL GAZETTE – ST-JEAN-SUR-RICHELIEU, Que. — Randy Smith has just about reached his breaking point. For nearly four weeks, he has filled sandbags, lugged heavy equipment through knee-deep water and prayed that the Richelieu River will finally begin to recede. So far, his prayers have gone unanswered.

Smith and his neighbours woke up to the news Saturday that despite clear-blue skies overhead and above-seasonal temperatures, the river was expected to start rising again as early as Sunday morning.

“After so many days, it gets to you,” said Smith, who owns a campground, restaurant and small boat rental operation in Noyan, one of the 20 municipalities that were affected when the Richelieu breached its banks in late April. He estimated he’ll lose 80 to 90 per cent of his revenue this summer as a direct result of the flooding.

“We’re at our wit’s end,” Smith said. “I’m a volunteer firefighter, and I filled probably 1,500 bags of sand in just that first week. It doesn’t look like it will go down for at least another month … we just don’t talk about it if we can help it.”

Smith was one of several people who spoke with Quebec Premier Jean Charest on Saturday as he paid another visit to the Richelieu region. Charest started his day at the public security headquarters in St-Jean-sur-Richelieu, where he met with Public Security Minister Robert Dutil and 10 mayors representing the affected towns.

“It was an opportunity to look at our situation as it stands today,” Charest told reporters following the hour-long meeting. “This has been very difficult for people. We want them to know that we’re with them.”

As of Saturday evening., Hydro Meteo — the agency that tracks water levels in the province — was reporting that levels in Lake Champlain and along the Richelieu River were stable, but warned that there could be minor fluctuations up or down overnight.

By Sunday morning, however, the water levels were expected to start rising again as winds from the south force water into the river from Lake Champlain.

“We are anticipating increases of three to six centimetres before midnight Monday,” reads a warning bulletin issued by Hydro Meteo. “The winds will cause waves 60 to 90 centimetres high on Lake Champlain … and 15 to 30 centimetres along the Richelieu River.”

Charest said he would be contacting Defence Minister Peter MacKay to ask him to keep the Armed Forces in the region on high alert.

“We are going to ask the Forces to be very vigilant with the change in the weather patterns over the next few days,” he said. “We’ve also put together an initiative to have other municipalities support the municipalities that are affected. Some of the affected municipalities have one employee, two employees. They’ve been under extreme pressure.”

In waterlogged Noyan, trained counsellors were on hand at City Hall to help those who have started to buckle under the psychological stress caused by long hours on the job or the loss of their homes and property.

“We have been going out into the communities as well … knocking on doors,” said Michel Pierre. “In the next few weeks, we may start to see a kind of secondary effect. If people realize they won’t get the compensation they were expecting … that can be a big shock.”

About 1,000 residents have already been forced to leave the area, and more than 3,000 homes have been damaged.

Charest said the provincial government has already spent about $4 million to help the victims of the flooding, and has increased the amount of potential compensation for private property owners to $150,000 from $100,000 and for business owners to $200,000 from $150,000. He said those numbers will likely increase over the next few weeks.

“When the waters finally recede, we’re going to look at the bigger picture and how we can maybe help more,” he said.

Smith, meanwhile, is still unsure how much compensation he’ll receive. He said he was glad that Charest had taken the time to speak directly to the victims of the flooding after meeting with the local mayors, but remained skeptical about the impact of the premier’s visit.

“I don’t think it’s going to change much for me,” he said, shrugging. “But he wished me good luck.”

Montreal Gazette